0:28

Don't necessarily make

0:31

a big decision

0:33

in your life and your lifestyle

0:35

based on just

0:38

visiting one area of Mexico

0:41

. It's a vast

0:43

country and

0:46

the environment is different

0:48

the natural , geographical

0:50

, historic and

0:53

just cultural differences throughout

0:56

this country , you know , which shocks some

0:58

people .

1:05

Welcome to X-PATs Like Us . A

1:07

co-production with me , vita Margarita

1:09

, exploring the world of US X-PAT

1:11

life in Mexico . In each episode

1:14

, we'll meet new people and hear their stories

1:16

. We'll also learn more about X-PAT

1:18

life and get a few tips on everything

1:21

from making your move to settling in

1:23

, to living your dreams and , most

1:25

of all , having fun . Let's dive

1:27

in .

1:38

I'm your host , chris Kowalski , and today we're thrilled

1:40

to be talking to our friend and fellow X-PAT

1:43

, scott Lawson . Scott and his wife

1:45

Deb moved to Riviera Maya about three

1:47

years ago . Scott is here to share his

1:49

experience in moving from his original home

1:51

in the Seattle area to living full-time

1:54

in Mexico and adapting to a new life

1:56

in a new country . Scott will also

1:58

share some insight on the special challenges

2:00

of navigating Mexico with a physical

2:02

disability . Hello , scott Lawson , welcome

2:05

to X-PATs Like Us .

2:06

Hi guys , nice to be here

2:08

and appreciate you asking me Glad

2:11

to have you here , Scott .

2:12

Thanks for coming in today . So

2:14

tell us about your life pre-Mexico

2:17

in the US .

2:18

Well , as Chris mentioned

2:21

, prior to moving here

2:23

, we lived in

2:25

the Seattle Washington area , and

2:28

that was with our two

2:30

children , our dogs , and

2:34

while there , I

2:37

should mention my wife , debra . The dogs

2:39

got to feel like they

2:41

were out of their beards .

2:45

You're going to have to distract her during

2:47

this part of the podcast .

2:50

Yes , shame on me , and

2:52

while there we

2:55

both went to the

2:57

University of Washington and

3:00

she went on to become

3:02

an engineer for

3:04

our local public utility , and

3:08

I spent my entire career

3:10

in construction management , doing

3:12

single family , multi-family

3:15

and commercial

3:17

healthcare work . And

3:20

prior to being

3:22

diagnosed with my

3:25

disability , which we'll explain

3:27

and talk about here in a bit

3:30

, I was a very active

3:32

guy . I

3:34

played a lot of softball

3:36

, golfed , skied

3:39

and a lot

3:42

of that just came crashing down in my

3:44

late 40s . Oh right and

3:50

but it kind of one of the things that

3:52

precipitated the move

3:54

down here . The

3:57

warmth , the

3:59

sunshine it's really

4:02

done wonders to

4:04

my health , including things

4:06

like blood pressure . I

4:08

think it affects a lot of people , but

4:11

yeah , so that

4:15

is sort of an outline

4:17

of what we did there . I

4:23

could elaborate on it , but really

4:26

the next chapter was coming here

4:28

.

4:30

Right , and what inspired you to decide

4:32

to move to Mexico instead of just being

4:34

in Seattle ?

4:36

Well , you

4:38

know it . A lot of it had

4:40

to do with my

4:43

health , of course , and

4:46

I was approaching retirement

4:48

age , my full retirement

4:50

age , and both my wife

4:53

and I , we were working at home

4:55

during COVID and

4:57

it was in a sort of that pivotal

5:00

point in our lives . Where do

5:03

we ? Do we stick

5:05

with this , or do we

5:07

work our way back to

5:09

commuting to work

5:11

rather than working at home

5:14

? And you know , there was some challenges

5:17

for myself being

5:20

at home as far as mobility

5:23

. I didn't get up enough . I

5:25

would sit there at my desk for

5:27

10 hours a day without

5:30

even getting up and moving around

5:32

. You know , something that I normally would

5:35

have done pre COVID

5:37

. So it

5:40

really it kind of was

5:42

the catalyst for

5:44

us to move

5:47

and retire .

5:49

I hear that a lot from people , that when

5:52

you say what inspired you to move to Mexico

5:54

, there's almost always , at

5:56

least you know , the people that have probably

5:59

been here around as long as we have , but

6:01

it's a consistent thing . Where they mentioned the

6:03

pandemic , yeah absolutely

6:06

, and it changed something in

6:08

all of our minds and

6:10

we all decided to make a big move

6:12

at that time .

6:13

Yeah , well , yeah , and

6:15

you know much of that is people

6:18

reflected on . You

6:20

know things just as simple as

6:22

family members becoming sick

6:24

. You know everybody

6:27

and I'm sure including yourselves

6:29

, new people

6:31

that passed away during COVID and

6:34

you know it's one of those things where

6:36

you just say you know

6:38

, do I want to work to die

6:40

or do I want to work to retire

6:42

? And it was just

6:45

something

6:47

that we just , you

6:50

know , we figured . You know we want

6:52

to go to the next chapter of our lives . Deborah

6:55

, she , she

6:57

was a little more reluctant to retire . She

6:59

absolutely loved her job and

7:03

it was a job that unfortunately

7:06

she couldn't do remotely . But

7:08

you know , she jumped on board

7:10

and you know

7:12

, here we are Now . We have

7:14

, we have

7:16

a bit of a history here

7:18

in Quintana Roo . We

7:23

we had been traveling here for

7:26

, I would say , over 50

7:28

years since we were , you

7:30

know , pretty darn young . Yeah

7:33

, exactly , Exactly . As a matter

7:35

of fact , we honeymooned in Cancun

7:38

and through

7:41

the course of that period we

7:44

we

7:47

had visited all

7:51

quite extensively . We had friends there

7:53

and that

7:56

was one of our first

7:58

choices in the area . There

8:01

were times where

8:04

we looked at Playa del Carmen

8:06

, and then we eventually

8:08

, of course , came to the Riviera

8:10

Maya , where we're at .

8:13

I'm guessing Cancun was a different place

8:15

at that time . Oh my gosh

8:17

, yeah , tell us about that .

8:19

Well , you know , many

8:21

of us know that Cancun is

8:24

, you know , relative to

8:26

most larger cities , it's

8:29

a new city . Cancun

8:31

has only been in existence

8:33

, the city itself , for

8:35

roughly 50 years , and

8:37

when we first came here

8:40

, I would say it was around 1988

8:44

. We

8:49

, we decided that we

8:53

would take a vacation

8:55

and we had all of these different

8:58

places that we looked

9:00

at , and Deborah came up

9:02

with Cancun . They had no

9:04

idea what it was it

9:07

in in . You know , in simple

9:09

terms , cancun became

9:13

in existence by

9:16

I

9:18

don't want to get this wrong , but it

9:21

was computer generalized , the

9:24

city it

9:27

they were looking for . The

9:29

Mexican government was looking for

9:31

a place for folks to

9:34

vacation and retire and they just , you

9:36

know , mixed all these balls up in

9:40

a bowl and with you

9:42

know , all those different criteria , cancun

9:45

was

9:48

, was picked , and I

9:50

think we all know that

9:53

, with its beauty , they

9:55

they made a pretty good choice . Yeah

9:58

, back in that time

10:00

mentioned

10:03

that , you know , we we decided to go on

10:05

vacation and

10:07

we we

10:10

picked one of the few

10:12

accommodations that were in the hotel

10:15

zone . If you're

10:17

not familiar with it , the hotel zone

10:19

is primarily the

10:21

zone in Cancun where people

10:24

vacation .

10:26

And , like most people that come to Cancun

10:28

, stay there and never leave there .

10:31

Exactly , exactly . But

10:34

at the time , like I

10:36

said , in the late 80s , there

10:39

were a handful of accommodations

10:42

. Now it's this high rise Mecca

10:46

that you

10:48

know . It looks like a large city if you're across

10:50

the way in Moheris , you see

10:53

, you know these these tall

10:55

buildings . But

10:57

anyways , this

11:02

, this hotel that

11:04

we picked , it was horrific . The

11:07

first thing we walk in the door , a

11:09

cockroach . And

11:12

you know , we

11:14

, we just

11:16

we were not happy

11:18

, so I had , I , my

11:21

trigger is pretty short and

11:24

they put us in the presidential

11:26

suite instead which

11:28

was not much better

11:30

.

11:31

Not really not totally presidential

11:34

, exactly .

11:35

Exactly . I recall another time

11:37

that we came with some friends and

11:40

we were staying at a

11:42

and this is , later in time , a

11:46

different hotel . No , actually I think

11:48

it was this one , deborah . Deborah

11:51

pulled out a postcard

11:53

or the advertisement for this

11:56

and she goes I want this room

11:58

, I paid for this room and

12:01

it , you know

12:03

, they pushed us to

12:05

a different suite . Yeah , so

12:07

anyways , long

12:09

story short there is is

12:12

that Cancun

12:15

hotel zone was nothing back

12:17

then . They were even dumping sewage

12:20

into the

12:22

what do they call the area

12:24

in the center ?

12:25

Oh yeah , the lagoon , or whatever it is the

12:27

lagoon .

12:27

Yeah , so I mean , just read

12:30

the suit we hope .

12:31

we hope they're not doing that today . I don't think

12:33

they can't confirm that , but I

12:36

think they come a long ways , but

12:38

anyways that that

12:41

was sort of the start of things .

12:42

We were going to stay

12:44

in , like I said , cosmow

12:47

, but we we decided

12:49

we looked at homes there and we decided that

12:51

there was really very little

12:54

new . A lot of the infrastructure

12:57

was old and we just figured we

12:59

have all kinds of problems with that

13:01

Sure . If we purchase . But anyways

13:04

, playa de Carmen . We

13:06

looked at a lot there and we all know

13:09

what Playa has turned

13:11

into and right

13:13

, it's now a . It's now a busy

13:16

, large , busy city , oh yeah

13:18

, and as a matter of fact , we

13:21

read somewhere that they expect

13:23

that the population of Playa

13:25

will exceed can't go in

13:27

X amount of years

13:30

, so we'll see what that happens

13:32

there , but it's turned

13:34

into a loud city with

13:36

traffic and I think

13:38

we're we're happy with our choice

13:41

where we came to , and I know you guys

13:43

have talked about it , sherry

13:45

and . Eric and and the both

13:47

of you where we live , and

13:49

I think we're all very happy with

13:52

our choice .

13:54

I would say we are . Yeah . Had you

13:56

gone to any other areas of Mexico to

13:58

look , or just ?

13:59

No , you know , interesting

14:01

, you mentioned that we

14:04

we pretty much had our

14:06

hearts set on this area . We

14:09

, from being from the West Coast , we

14:12

were familiar with the West Coast

14:14

of Mexico and

14:16

, as you know

14:18

, the climate is is much different

14:21

. Even , you

14:23

know , even areas of Southern California

14:26

people often think that it's

14:28

it's warm , it's in the

14:30

water , temperatures freezing there , and

14:33

that continues all the way down along

14:35

the coast of of

14:37

Mexico Pretty

14:39

chilly temperatures . So

14:41

, you know , we did this as one of the things

14:43

that we thought

14:47

that you know was , you

14:49

know , one of the one of the things

14:51

that we felt was beneficial

14:54

to , you

14:57

know , our well-being , our health

14:59

, to be able to be in

15:01

an area that you know we have , you

15:04

know , bath water warm ocean

15:07

here and we're all , we can all be active

15:09

, you know even even with with

15:12

the disability that we'll talk about . I

15:14

mean you're , you're a very active guy yeah

15:16

, you know I try to be , you know , given

15:18

given my limitations , yes , but

15:21

yeah , so anyways , ended

15:23

up here . Like

15:26

I said , we were here multiple times

15:28

and at the time we

15:30

it wasn't that

15:32

time , but we had

15:34

purchased our property here about

15:36

eight years ago . I'm not

15:38

sure how long you guys have been here , but

15:57

it wasn't until three years

15:59

ago that we did retire . But

16:01

we , we , we liked it so

16:03

much that you know , we used it

16:05

as a rental for a while and vacationed

16:08

here , and that's

16:10

kind of how we kind of ended up in

16:13

the Riviera Maya .

16:14

Okay , so tell us

16:16

, in your view , what are some of the most important

16:18

things people watching or listening should

16:21

think about before making a move to

16:23

Mexico .

16:26

You know , be

16:28

it Mexico or or

16:30

another country , country , there are

16:33

differences , no question

16:36

about it . And

16:38

you know if

16:40

, if you're , if

16:42

you're from the

16:44

US or Canada , there are similarities

16:47

but the differences are greater . And

16:50

you guys have touched on

16:53

it , on your , your new

16:55

little session .

16:56

Yeah , it's , it's kind of a team . With

16:58

us is K-Podre

17:00

K-Molo yeah , wow , he remembers

17:03

that . That's awesome , absolutely .

17:05

Absolutely . I found it very

17:07

entertaining in it . You know

17:09

, kind of hit me , you know right

17:11

to heart because we've all been

17:13

through it , and

17:16

but anyways , you

17:19

know one of the other things

17:21

that you know people should be aware

17:25

of when they come here do

17:27

your research . It's

17:30

, it's ever changing

17:32

, this country , and you

17:35

know , like I said , either be it

17:37

this country or another country , it

17:41

, there's a vast amount of

17:43

knowledge out there that can

17:46

assist you to to make

17:48

the right choices . You

17:52

know I would . I would say that

17:54

don't hit

17:56

and I'm , my wife and

17:59

I are a bit guilty of this Don't

18:02

necessarily make a

18:05

big decision in your life and

18:08

your lifestyle based on

18:10

just visiting one

18:12

area of Mexico . Right , it's

18:16

a vast country and

18:19

the environment is different

18:21

. The natural , geographical

18:23

, historic and

18:26

just cultural differences throughout

18:29

this country , you know , would shock some

18:31

people , right ? So

18:33

Bob and Sherry and Debra and

18:36

I , we were just recently in Mexico

18:38

City .

18:40

Completely different place than where

18:42

we live in every way .

18:44

Yep , every way . People

18:47

are often shocked that they

18:49

think of Mexico as a relatively

18:51

, you know

18:53

, flat country , you know it has

18:56

mountains . But what

18:58

is Mexico City ? I think it was like

19:00

8,000 .

19:01

Yeah , it's somewhere up there , I mean it's something .

19:02

It's very high , yeah , and you sit

19:05

in the middle of the city and you look at two

19:07

snow covered volcanoes

19:09

which I personally

19:11

had never imagined until I

19:13

saw that .

19:15

Yeah me neither . That surprised me too .

19:18

Yeah , but you know , I know there

19:20

are Debra and I

19:22

really haven't traveled , like

19:24

you said , much throughout Mexico and

19:26

I know you guys have traveled probably

19:29

much more . But culture

19:32

has a lot to do with it . There

19:35

simply isn't much culture

19:37

here , right In Cointanero

19:40

, other than you know the ruins

19:42

and you know my own culture .

19:44

And by culture we mean , like music , like you

19:47

know , concerts and theater

19:49

and architecture , yeah , architecture

19:52

, yeah , exactly Right . And

19:54

then , finally , is culture , but not

19:57

that type of culture , Whereas you can find that kind

19:59

of stuff all

20:02

over in other cities , in central cities

20:04

in Mexico like . Mexico City or Guadalajara

20:07

even , or you know , it's

20:09

very different . Yeah , it's . I think

20:11

part of it is . Quintana Roo is such a

20:13

young state . We just we

20:16

did a thing in a trivia contest the other

20:18

day and Quintana Roo was not

20:20

even a state until the 70s , till the

20:22

mid 70s , right , I mean , it was

20:24

jungle until then you know , so

20:26

yeah , they don't have the tradition of culture

20:29

and theater and that kind of stuff .

20:31

Yeah , so some of the other things

20:34

that you know one should

20:36

consider when they move

20:38

to Mexico . You

20:41

know I said that things are

20:43

different and patience

20:47

goes a long ways .

20:50

And we all learn that In the hard way

20:52

.

20:53

Yes , yeah , yeah . And

20:56

you know , I've heard , I've

20:59

heard many people say that

21:02

give it a couple years . You

21:04

know , the first year is going to be a

21:07

test and

21:09

if you fail the test you're

21:11

probably not going to be here the second year

21:13

. It's

21:16

just . It's something that

21:18

you

21:21

have to have tolerance and

21:24

you know we talk about , you

21:28

know things , that thing

21:31

about Mexico that resonates

21:33

is things

21:35

, everything , everything

21:37

is consistently inconsistent

21:40

and you have to go with that

21:42

. If

21:44

you don't , you're going

21:46

to have problems .

21:49

Yeah , you can't expect things to be consistent

21:51

. Yeah , I think you will be horribly disappointed

21:53

.

21:53

I think Bob . Bob has a story

21:55

that he shared , you

21:58

know , a couple of weeks ago about getting tabs

22:02

for his or his license

22:05

plates . And

22:07

you know , one guy , they , they'll tell

22:09

you something and another

22:12

person will tell you something else , and

22:14

it's just , you know , it's a matter of how

22:16

they rolled out a bed that morning .

22:18

The person yeah , we just did it this week

22:20

and , yeah , you know , we brought all the paperwork

22:22

in . The guy says I don't need any of that .

22:25

Yeah , exactly .

22:26

I got sent home to get more paperwork

22:29

, like two weeks ago . Yeah , I was going to

22:31

touch on that in a second

22:33

.

22:33

But yeah , yeah , the guy next to you , you

22:36

know you've been

22:39

requested , or the

22:41

literature tells you that you

22:43

need these six documents and

22:46

just for safe measure , you bring eight and

22:49

you know you're standing there , you give them

22:52

the six , they take four , but

22:54

they want you to go home to get

22:56

another one Right to get another photocopy

22:59

of one or so . The next guy next to you only

23:01

had two documents , and he made

23:03

it successful , yeah , and

23:06

anyways , it's , you

23:09

know it's , it's , it's some

23:12

, it's some of the things

23:14

that you need to consider and in

23:16

Mexico right now , things

23:19

are changing a lot . It's

23:22

, it's

23:25

rapidly changing

23:27

with the current administration

23:29

, the

23:31

laws are changing , the way that

23:34

this country operates

23:36

. It's

23:38

no longer what

23:43

we might have thought about in the

23:45

past . The economy

23:47

is changing and

23:49

, as we , as we

23:51

all know , when we first came here , we

23:56

could take a pace on it stretching , and

23:59

you know it was one of the allures

24:02

of , you know , coming here .

24:04

Right .

24:05

Well , and you know , minimum wage has gone up since

24:08

we've been here Like what 50%

24:10

at least , and slated

24:12

to go up more , which affects the

24:14

prices of everything . But

24:16

on the other hand , it means a Mexico

24:19

. Mexico now has more of an

24:21

emerging middle class that they

24:23

can afford to buy things , and buy more goods and

24:25

stuff , so the economy is improving . Well

24:27

, this economy is on fire .

24:29

I mean , we all know what

24:32

, what the conversion

24:34

rate is right now between the peso

24:36

and the US dollar . And

24:39

you know , for those of us who are taking

24:41

our money from the United States , we're

24:44

getting clobbered and

24:46

it is becoming more

24:49

expensive to live here

24:51

, and you know

24:53

it's . You know . The second

24:55

punch is that we live in the most expensive

24:58

area of Mexico

25:01

, with the tourism region that

25:04

it is .

25:04

When we went to Mexico City , we were surprised at

25:06

how inexpensive things were .

25:09

We were taking uvers for pocket change

25:11

you know , which you know it was

25:13

. It was quite a pleasure .

25:41

Yeah , alright

25:55

, we're back . Hey Scott , so we know

25:57

that you lead a very active life in retirement

25:59

and we mentioned earlier in the podcast that you're

26:02

a person with physical disabilities . Could

26:04

you describe that disability and

26:06

how it affects your daily life ?

26:10

Sure , like

26:12

you said , a lot of my neighbors they see

26:14

me walking around and most

26:16

often I have a cane . So

26:20

I have a disease called

26:23

Charette Marie Tooth

26:25

Syndrome and

26:28

a goofy name , but it's based

26:30

on the doctors

26:33

that discovered it

26:36

. It's a genetic

26:40

hereditary

26:42

degenerative disorder

26:46

that roughly

26:49

3%

26:51

of the population in the

26:53

US has it

26:56

. It varies in

26:58

severity . My

27:02

case is it's

27:06

sort of middle of the ground

27:11

. What my symptoms are

27:13

Kind of in a

27:15

nutshell

27:20

my

27:24

nerves are dead from my knees

27:26

down , kind

27:29

of the best way to describe it

27:32

. Part

27:34

of this disorder is with

27:36

my motor and sensory

27:40

nerves . It

27:43

gets scrambled when the signal

27:45

is sent from my brain . It

27:48

somewhere along the way it

27:50

doesn't send the signal to

27:53

my knees and

27:55

my legs , it

27:58

I wanna

28:00

, kind of . The best way I describe it

28:02

is I wanna be 20

28:04

feet ahead , but the

28:07

signal isn't telling my feet

28:09

to be there and

28:11

with that I

28:15

have a gate in my walk

28:18

, whereas

28:20

when I walk my feet have to

28:22

go higher because if

28:25

they don't I am

28:27

susceptible to

28:29

tripping . I have drop foot

28:31

where my foot drops

28:33

and

28:36

much of what I have to do is balance

28:39

myself with

28:41

a cane . The

28:48

other walking aid I have

28:50

is a articulating

28:53

brace on my foot and

28:56

that brace allows

28:58

me to walk without having

29:00

to think about every step I take , and

29:04

under normal circumstances I have to think about every step I take

29:06

, otherwise

29:09

I'm gonna trip and that can be exhausting

29:11

. I can't

29:13

even imagine . Yeah

29:16

, so this brace is a guide to that . Most

29:19

of these braces go roughly

29:21

up to the knee and

29:25

I approached my orthotic guy doctor

29:27

and

29:31

I told him that my wife

29:33

and I are coming to Mexico and

29:37

in doing so I'm gonna be wearing shorts 99%

29:39

of the time and

29:42

for several reasons I wanna change my life and

29:45

I'm gonna be wearing shorts and

29:47

I'm gonna be wearing shorts and

29:50

I'm gonna be wearing shorts and for several

29:52

reasons I wanted shorter braces

29:54

and my request

29:56

to him was to go ahead and

29:58

cut the braces off . He

30:01

had never heard of it , anybody

30:04

doing that , so

30:07

it was kind of a unique

30:09

request and

30:12

it works great for me . It

30:16

kind of serves the purpose of

30:18

helping me not have the

30:20

drop foot . Cosmetically

30:23

. It still allows

30:26

me to have be

30:29

able to wear shorts and still

30:31

have the brace

30:33

short enough . And

30:36

we had talked about the act of life . If

30:39

it weren't for this brace , I would not

30:41

be able to play golf , and

30:44

you guys are very

30:46

passionate about your pickleball and

30:50

I try to be passionate about golf

30:52

, but unfortunately

30:55

I don't get out enough . We

30:59

live on an incredible golf course

31:02

. It's one of the most beautiful

31:04

courses in Latin America

31:06

and anytime we

31:08

have an opportunity to get out there it's

31:11

special and I

31:15

would like to play more , but it's

31:18

just a matter of logistics and getting

31:20

people . But these braces

31:22

are really

31:26

something that , if

31:28

you have the disorder that I have

31:30

, you really need them and

31:33

they're going to allow you to

31:35

carry on with

31:37

life . I don't wear them

31:39

all the time . I'm in my

31:41

sandals , quite often and

31:44

in doing so I pretty much have to

31:46

use my cane to maintain

31:49

balance .

31:49

So how is life different in Mexico , I mean

31:51

in the US , there's ADA

31:54

compliance for buildings

31:56

and for everything . Oh , I just . And

31:59

when heck I can trip

32:01

and hurt myself walking around

32:04

?

32:04

anywhere in Mexico . I always say everything's as it is in

32:06

Mexico .

32:07

Yeah , yeah , I'm gonna put it on the

32:09

swivel .

32:10

Yeah , it's kind of funny . You mentioned that I

32:13

just yesterday I was at the doctor

32:15

and in their parking

32:18

lot they have , if

32:20

everybody's pretty familiar

32:23

with a ramp in the United

32:25

States and Canada , it's got a fairly

32:27

gentle slope like one

32:29

inch to 12 feet or whatever

32:32

. It is this

32:34

particular ramp going into the doorway

32:37

. Was it 45 degrees ?

32:39

I've seen those before . I always think oh

32:41

my God , if I was in a wheelchair I would

32:43

never wanna go down that thing

32:45

and . I couldn't probably go up it

32:47

.

32:47

Yeah , at the opposing end of this

32:49

is a main

32:52

thoroughfare . Yeah , you can roll

32:54

right into it . Yeah

32:57

, so , and you know . Also

33:00

, with this particular ramp

33:02

it went up to

33:04

the doorway . So there's no landing

33:06

, there's no staging area

33:09

for somebody at 45

33:11

degrees to pull the door open

33:13

and

33:16

there's no enforcement for

33:18

something like this . Now they may

33:20

try , but their

33:23

effort is a little futile . But

33:26

anyways , you go

33:28

throughout any city here

33:30

Cancun , big Playa , tulum and

33:34

you'll be walking along a sidewalk

33:36

and there

33:40

are junction boxes

33:42

with a great smessing , and

33:44

it never embers anybody's

33:46

mind to put a grate on it . Any

33:50

of the municipal workers are

33:52

just the guy who

33:54

has the shop adjacent to it . You

33:57

think maybe throw a piece of board

33:59

on it or something . There

34:02

are few curb

34:04

cuts that are

34:08

in the intersections

34:11

.

34:12

And I'm assuming the places that do

34:14

have that sort of thing are they're

34:16

few and far between , like your ramp

34:19

is at a doctor's place , right .

34:21

Yeah , exactly , it's not

34:23

just a normal government building

34:25

or something . There's some irony

34:28

there . I don't , yeah

34:30

, ok , yeah , you have to laugh

34:32

. I mean as

34:34

much as things . You

34:38

want to be safe , you

34:41

got to chuckle Parking

34:44

spaces . They do

34:46

have ADA

34:48

accessible parking spaces , but

34:51

in the area I

34:53

have to say they're highly

34:55

abused .

34:56

They use them for loading .

34:58

I don't think they bust people for

35:00

parking there Right , and

35:02

if you take a peak

35:05

, 80% of the cars park

35:07

there don't have blockards and

35:10

that's kind of a shame , but

35:15

there's no bite to anything when it

35:17

comes to things

35:19

regarding ADA .

35:21

So do you have a placard in your car ?

35:22

I do OK , I do yeah and

35:25

is that issued by

35:27

the Mexican government no actually

35:29

mine is from

35:31

the United States and

35:37

it is accepted in Mexico

35:39

and widely accepted throughout

35:42

the world . I don't know if there

35:44

is any reciprocating agreement

35:47

, but

35:50

it is being acceptable here

35:52

.

35:52

That's something I've never heard before . Yeah , yeah , that's interesting

35:55

. So I've never had

35:58

anybody try

36:01

to enforce it

36:03

, but

36:05

that's good to know because people from the States

36:08

thinking of coming down here .

36:09

If you have a handicapped and you

36:11

do have a placard , bring it with you , because

36:14

it's good here , yep absolutely

36:16

, and there must be some

36:19

reasoning to have it , because

36:22

I will say that one

36:25

of your former neighbors had

36:29

asked me to loan them

36:31

a placard and I got stolen

36:33

out of the car .

36:35

So somebody's using it here and

36:37

there's probably not somebody with a handicap either

36:40

. I got to assume .

36:42

Yeah , yeah , but

36:48

one of those things that you

36:51

just have to accept if

36:56

you're traveling

36:58

. Part of my advice we had talked about

37:01

looking at different cities

37:03

throughout Mexico , probably

37:06

before you make a choice of living

37:09

in a particular area . Not

37:13

every city is even

37:15

anywhere close to the compliance

37:18

that you might see in Cancun or

37:20

one of the newer cities . You

37:22

go to Merida or

37:24

some of the , even Mexico city

37:26

, there are areas

37:29

that they have cobblestone and

37:31

they don't think twice about it

37:33

and the cobblestones have been there since horses

37:35

were walking .

37:36

Well , horses could have been walking on it earlier

37:39

today , but since

37:41

it was built in the 1500s

37:43

or something , yeah , so there

37:46

really are

37:48

few expectations to

37:51

accommodate .

37:52

I mean , it's not like they do anything on

37:54

purpose to nod , it's

37:58

kind of how they do it . A lot of it

38:00

is economic . They don't

38:02

have the money .

38:03

Right , yep , you

38:06

know we talked in an earlier podcast about

38:08

one of the good things we like is we pay

38:10

very low property tax . But

38:12

the bad part of that is there's

38:14

not a lot of money for infrastructure . Isn't

38:17

that true ? That ?

38:18

sort of thing . You know that's good and bad . That's

38:20

cheaper yeah , it is cheaper by

38:22

far , but yeah , yeah

38:24

. So yeah , those

38:26

are some of the things that

38:32

you wish we had

38:34

laws

38:37

and enforcement for

38:39

something like what we know is

38:42

ADA in the US , but

38:47

I try to pretty

38:49

much work with what

38:51

we have here .

38:55

So what advice would you have for people with

38:57

physical challenges who are thinking about making the

39:00

move to Mexico ?

39:04

Kind of what I touched on a second ago . Look

39:07

at different areas . If it's something

39:09

that's really important

39:11

to you , check

39:16

these places out first , because

39:19

you'd be shocked

39:21

at making a choice if

39:24

you're going to live in a particular city and

39:26

you have those expectations

39:29

that are going

39:32

to be realized . You

39:39

know things like and I think we've seen this maybe

39:41

in our neighborhood every so often

39:43

, if

39:45

you're making decisions on

39:48

homes

39:50

and they have elevators

39:53

, consider

39:55

that often

39:58

our electrical

40:00

grid here in Mexico is

40:03

sometimes questionable . It

40:05

goes out a lot and

40:09

it sort of resonates because , like I said

40:11

, we've seen a

40:13

couple instances in here

40:16

in our neighborhood that if

40:18

the power goes out it

40:20

becomes a burden not to

40:22

have Right right .

40:25

So maybe that kind of housing you might want to

40:27

consider keeping in mind . Look

40:29

at places on lower floors

40:31

.

40:32

Yep , absolutely , yeah

40:36

, it's . You know

40:38

those are . Those are some of the obstacles

40:41

that that , if

40:43

you are considering coming

40:45

here , I think

40:47

the biggest you know takeaway there

40:49

is there are no ADA

40:52

loss right , or you know the

40:54

comparable requirements

40:57

in Canada to that . You

40:59

know , don't

41:02

have expectations that

41:04

are not realistic .

41:06

Right , okay , we'll take another break

41:08

and we'll be back .

41:25

Okay , we're back . Okay , scott

41:27

. So in an earlier episode we played a game called K-Podray

41:29

K-Malo , which is things you love

41:32

about Mexico and things you don't like

41:34

so much . Give me one thing you really love

41:36

about living here , k-podray , and

41:38

one thing that you don't necessarily

41:40

like as much as K-Malo . I'd

41:44

love to just elaborate

41:46

and you know , play your entire game

41:48

Because you know one

41:50

for a while it's fun to listen

41:52

to it .

41:54

You know , I think that , which

41:59

is a K-Podray , the things

42:01

you do like

42:03

365

42:06

days of the year , sunshine , summer

42:09

. You

42:11

know , occasionally you have a blip in

42:13

weather here and there and perhaps

42:16

winter and hurricane

42:18

season , but it's

42:21

so nice to wake up every morning

42:23

and see the sunshine

42:26

, especially coming from Seattle . Huh , yeah , oh

42:28

yeah . Yeah , you know a place where we

42:31

thrive on three months a year . You

42:33

know , getting outside , but and

42:35

you know I knew you and Utah

42:38

. You know you faced snow

42:40

and same with South Dakota , yeah

42:42

, and , but it's

42:44

just something that

42:47

I'm sure a lot of people can't imagine

42:49

until you experience it

42:51

. Yeah , it's just so

42:53

good for the soul . Yeah , just feeling

42:56

now today

42:58

, maybe a little warm

43:00

outside .

43:01

Yeah .

43:01

But you know for March , but you

43:04

know most often yeah .

43:06

Yeah , okay . And if you had

43:08

a list of , like the top

43:10

thing that someone should consider when

43:13

looking to retire and making an international

43:15

move , what would that one thing be ?

43:17

You know . One comes to mind is

43:19

and I've seen in many

43:22

other blogs and podcasts

43:24

people

43:27

often say rent first before

43:30

you really make a commitment

43:32

to doing so . So

43:40

you know it , it

43:42

I probably

43:45

should have heated that advice

43:48

only because you know

43:50

we haven't experienced the rest of

43:52

the country Right , and

43:54

you know we , we've been invested

43:56

here . We're invested here and

43:58

absolutely love it

44:00

, no question about it . But

44:03

you know it was a thrill to

44:06

go to Mexico City and see

44:08

the different neighborhoods and our

44:11

area is growing here and

44:14

you know , I think you know

44:16

, we'll , you know , eventually we're going

44:18

to see . You know some of that

44:21

. But

44:23

to answer your question

44:26

, I would say the

44:29

number one thing , and I don't care

44:31

where you go research

44:33

, research the place

44:35

. You know when we first

44:37

, you know , thought

44:41

about coming here and

44:43

you know , like I said , almost

44:45

50 years ago , we never

44:47

had the vast amount of knowledge

44:49

and tools and

44:51

internet and it's

44:54

, it's out there . You

44:56

know , listen to podcasts like this . You

45:00

know it can , it can really help you

45:02

with those choices

45:05

rather than , you know , jumping in

45:07

or both .

45:09

We , you know , we always and we talked about

45:11

this on an earlier podcast we credit . What's

45:15

the guy's name ? It's 2xpats Mexico .

45:17

Paul that blog Paul .

45:19

Paul , yeah , for that's

45:21

, they're the reason we moved . You know that . They

45:23

made us realize we could move , and tons of good info

45:26

. Yeah , absolutely , we studied that for

45:28

years .

45:28

Absolutely yeah , and

45:32

you know one of the other

45:34

things that you know I don't want

45:36

to digress here , but

45:38

you talk

45:40

about . You know

45:42

when you make choices and

45:45

what choices you make look

45:48

at , look at realistic budgets

45:51

. I mean , so many times

45:53

you look at these sites and

45:55

, quite honestly , they're bogus budgets

45:58

. You know

46:00

you can't live in

46:02

Mexico on a thousand dollars a

46:04

month . You can perhaps , you

46:06

know , somewhere in a hut .

46:08

You know in the middle of .

46:09

Mexico .

46:10

Right , but you know often

46:12

, you know it's portrayed

46:14

that you can do that

46:16

.

46:17

You've got to look at all of them and it's taken as

46:19

a blanket statement about all of Mexico

46:21

too , which is , yeah , completely

46:23

not true .

46:23

Yeah , yeah , but you know that would be

46:26

some advice when

46:28

you know you're looking

46:30

at trying to make that commitment All right

46:32

, yeah Well , thank you , scott Lawson

46:34

, for joining us today on Xpats

46:36

, like Us . Oh , thank you very much

46:38

. Had a great chat with you guys

46:41

, yep .

46:44

In each episode of Xpats Like Us , we're

46:46

going to teach you a new Mexican slang

46:48

word . This is something you may not find

46:50

in your phrasebook or your online Spanish

46:52

class or your Spanish app or wherever

46:55

you're learning your Spanish . Instead , this

46:57

is a term used primarily by

46:59

Mexican Spanish speakers .

47:02

Today's word is Eres

47:06

, la neta Eres la

47:10

neta . Eres la neta Okay

47:12

.

47:12

I know that Eres means you are yes

47:14

.

47:15

La neta is a slang way of

47:17

saying you're the best , you're cool

47:19

, you're spot on . Eres la neta , Okay

47:22

.

47:22

You're the best Eres . La neta

47:24

, erica Kowalski , from Me Vida

47:26

Margarita . We'd

47:33

love to hear your thoughts on today's topic

47:35

. Just look up Xpats . Like Us

47:37

on Facebook or send us an email

47:39

at xpatslikeuscom

47:42

. You can also see the video version

47:44

of today's discussion and all of our discussions

47:47

on our YouTube page . Follow , like

47:49

, subscribe and leave us a review

47:51

. Thank

47:54

you to today's guest , scott Lawson

47:56

. Thanks also to my co-host , chris Kowalski

47:58

and his wife , erica , and thanks

48:00

to my wife , sherry Bussey . Most

48:02

of all , thank you for tuning in to Xpats

48:05

Like Us and thank you for interacting

48:07

with us on social media . Next

48:09

time we'll bring you more first-hand information

48:11

about your international move . We'll

48:13

see you again in two weeks . Until

48:16

then , remember our homes are not defined

48:18

by geography or one particular

48:20

location , but by memories , events

48:23

, people and places that span

48:25

the globe .